


Ignoring, Always Something

by h_nb



Series: Keaton [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Bruises, Exhaustion, Exploring, Ignoring an Injury, Lying To Your Friends, Reinjuring, Whump, Whumptober 2020, accidental injury, anyways coolio, falling, im so tired idk how to tag this, injured, lying, reopening wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27295321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_nb/pseuds/h_nb
Summary: Whumptober Day Thirty: Ignoring an Injury
Series: Keaton [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956004
Kudos: 5
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Ignoring, Always Something

Jae had taken his camera. Said it was for Keaton's own good, that he shouldn't be doing anything to reopen his bandaged wound, he needed to rest. And Keaton had agreed, he knew that it would be better if he let his injuries heal some more. He agreed for a while, and stayed in his apartment, alternating between editing his own photos, working, and texting Jae.

But he still had his phone camera... and the spare camera in his cabinet where he kept the bags and memory cards. And besides, his friend Dina had invited him out to a spot to explore and shoot, somewhere that Keaton knew would be safe because he had been there maybe ten times. It was one of his favorite places to shoot, an old library that had been abandoned after a fire had burned most of it down. Papers were still strewn across the floor, and half-burned books lined the walls, relatively undisturbed by the other urban explorers that perused the place.

He couldn't tell Dina the real reason that he technically shouldn't go, and it was going to be safe, it wasn't some entirely unexplored location. As long as Keaton wore a hoodie and long pants, the bandages over his torso, calf, and upper arm were hidden, and when Dina asked him about the bruise on his forehead, Keaton lied with only a bit of a stumble, blaming it on his kitchen cupboard.

He had taken painkillers, so while the wounds still ached as they drove out to the building, it was fine. Keaton pushed the pain to the side as he caught up with Dina, splitting his attention between driving and talking to her, not leaving any for the way his wounds stung and pulled slightly each time he breathed.

He parked the car, and he and Dina took their equipment from his backseat, walking toward the familiar building. Keaton felt on edge, and unsual feeling around this building but one he had become used to with a camera in his hand.

"What's up, Key?" Dina nudged his shoulder, and Keaton held back a wince as she accidentally pressed on his injured shoulder. "Don't tell me you're losing your nerve for this, seriously?"

Keaton shook his head, listening carefully for the sound of unfamiliar voices. "Of course not," he said incredulously, shoving those thoughts aside as well. "Come on, let's get some good pictures while we've still got light."

They ran through the place, snapping photos together, staying on the ground floor at first, which Keaton was fine with. He still felt fine, and Dina didn't seem like she'd noticed at all, so that was good.

His friend stopped a broken window, peering outside of it. The glass had long been swept away by other explorers, a familiar path Keaton himself had taken before. The walls of this place were stone, so they still stood mostly intact, only a few dangerous spots known for crumbling. It was the walls and interior that had burned away, and the stone walls on the inside were charred and crumbling slightly, but they still stood sturdily. This left footholds in the walls, enough for a familiar path hollowed out by several other explorers up to the second floor, which was inaccessible from the burned staircase on the first floor.

"Ready?" Dina gave him a wide smile, but Keaton's returning smile was much less vibrant.

"Yep, sure," he said confidently, stowing his camera away for the moment. He followed Dina as she stepped out first, pulling herself up and climbing up the wall easily, disappearing from view. Keaton took a deep breath, and stepped up on the windowsill, raising his arms to follow her up.

When he put his weight on his arms a few moments later, pushing himself up through the window to swing his legs over to the second floor, Keaton felt the bandage pull at his aching arms, and then tear, and pain exploded through his arm. Keaton nearly collapsed on the floor, instead sagging against the wall as he clutched at his arm. Liquid was staining the hoodie sleeve, and Keaton closed his eyes in frustration and regret as he realized that it was blood.

"Keaton?" Dina was standing over him, head tilted in confusion. "You good?"

"Crap. Uh- yeah, I'm good, I just-- I'll be okay, but we should make this quick, 'cause--" Keaton lifted his arm, and held back a flinch of pain. "We just should."

Keaton tried to take pictures, but his arm hurt so fiercely every time he lifted his arm that his pictures were sure to come out shaky and a waste of memory at this point. So he put his camera away, leaning against the side of the wall and clutching his arm as he waited for Phoebe to finish, smiling at her to try and dissuade her of any worry.

It didn't work, not completely, because Phoebe still looked around like she was searching for her next shot as she walked up to Keaton with a small frown on her face. "You... ready to go?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I- yeah. Let's go."

"You gonna be good to climb from the window?"

Keaton nodded. "I mean, I gotta be, right?"

Dina went first again, climbing easily down the wall and through the window. "Alright, I'll be here to help you in, alright?" She sounded worried, and Keaton felt guilty as he swung one leg out the window to make the short climb down.

"I'll be okay," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else as he gripped the stones around him and stepped down.

His calf strained as it searched for a foothold, and another bandage tore, ripping the wound as it did so. Keaton cried out, pain causing his body to shudder, fingers slipping on their hold in the rocks. Wind rushed around him for a brief second as he fell through the air, a loud cry leaving his lips. He distantly heard Dina's cry, just before his world was drowned in sharp pain that coursed through his back as he hit the ground. Keaton jerked as his body reacted to the hard dirt on the ground, all the air leaving his lungs in a second. He gasped, struggling to suck in air as his side stung with a new fierceness, all his previously bandaged wounds now freshly opened and bleeding once more. "Shit."

"Keaton?" Dina was yelling, and as Keaton struggled to sit up she ran out of the building and around to him, crouching down and looking over him in worry. "What the hell, you've never fallen from that before, are you okay?"

"Fuck, I'm- I'm okay," Keaton lied, but his hoodie had hiked up in the fall and Dina could clearly see the torn bandage and bleeding wound in his side.

"What- Keaton! What is this, what happened to you?"

"Help me up," Keaton murmured instead, reaching up with their good arm to Dina's shakily outstretched hand. "Can you drive? Need t' go back to the apartment."

"You need to go to a hospital--"

"No, don't- I'll be fine, Dina, really. Just gotta go home, I've got stuff there."

"Why did you even come out here if you were injured like this, Key, what happened to you?"

"I'll tell you later when I'm not bleeding." Keaton promised, lying, guilt coating his tongue. 

Dina helped him in the car and got him to his apartment as quickly as she could, as Keaton pressed his hoodie to his side. It was already ruined, but Keaton was barely thinking of that, now only thinking about the pain in his side and the blood running down his leg and arm, flashing memories of the knife that had cut these into his skin running through his head

"Let me come in," Dina bartered minutes later as Keaton leaned heavily against his apartment door, weariness weighing his body down with new bruises and reopened wounds. 

"Dina-" Keaton winced, pain spiking through him with every breath. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"You better explain it all, or I'll- I don't know, I'll-" Dina looked at a loss for words, eyes glued to the blood leaking from Keaton's side.

"Mhm." Keaton stepped back slightly. He felt bad, as he closed the door on Dina's shocked and hurt face, but their wounds hurt too much to ignore any longer.

He did ignore Jae's text, asking him how he was doing. He patched up his wounds, he took more painkillers, and ignored the texts from his friends.

Keaton always felt like his was ignoring something, one way or another. His friends, his injuries, his desires, he was always ignoring something, and there was nothing he could do about any of it, and he...

He was just so tired. 

So he patched up his wounds, and stared at nothing, and eventually fell into a fitful sleep, unable to ignore the pull of it any longer.


End file.
